


And this is the end

by LadyWillow



Series: Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor [5]
Category: Agent Carter (TV)
Genre: F/M, Spoilers for Season2Ep10
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-29
Updated: 2016-02-29
Packaged: 2018-05-23 21:52:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6131323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyWillow/pseuds/LadyWillow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>But some words burn when spoken, and can never be taken back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And this is the end

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by promos to Season2 Episode 10 finale. Spoilers.

He had told her he’d be with her to the end. And he meant it.

But he could feel her drawing away, getting ready to move – backward, forward, on – he wasn’t sure. But she had stopped touching him. Stopped sharing those smiles that lit up his sky. Stopped looking at him as if he had the answer to some question she had not quite asked.

And he would not stand in front of her, heart in hand, and force her to tell him that she had made her choice and he was not it.

That one moment in the van when their hands clasped, when her voice finally dropped from rally-the-troops, stiff-upper-lip, Agent-Carter-in-command to just Peggy, concerned that she had mucked up his happy California life – that would have to do. How could he tell her that he had cut her out of his heart once when he left his life behind, and that there was not enough of his heart left to do it again? No, when she left – when she left – he would start over, but he’d never be whole again. This time, he wouldn’t pretend.

A part of him wanted to grab her and pour our his heart, telling her every thought and feeling that had tortured him since he had met her: how he had known of her love for America’s hero; how he had believed that she would never – could never – accept a damaged man as a substitute; how he had faced her treachery and known it didn’t matter – that his love for her only burned brighter when he believed she had betrayed them; that he had left without a word because his heart was in his throat, choking him; that he had constrained his love – which burned as bright as a comet – to something that could fit into a small house in the suburbs with a perfectly lovely woman he could spend his small life with; that her arrival had immolated that life as if it had never existed; that the moment of seeing her fall had kept him awake every night since; that the pain on Violet’s face when she accused him of loving Peggy was still less real to him than the pain radiating from Peggy when Jason Wilkes had turned the gun on her; that the knowledge that Peggy had turned to him – and away from him, and back to him in a dance he knew only a few steps of – was the only point of light he could see moving forward.

But some words burn when spoken, and can never be taken back. This unwanted love was his burden to bear, and he would not lay it on her back. She had enough to carry.

He knew they were nearing the end. He only hoped she would let him help until the task was finished. But he had to do it as a free man. His choice.

So, while taking pictures in Frost’s lab, he took a deep breath and prepared to cut the ties of loyalty and friendship that bound them together.

“Over here.”

“Figured you’d want at least one souvenir from your trip to California.”

“Still. I’m glad we got to work together again.”

_What you goin’ to do? It’s up to you._


End file.
